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‘Fortnite’ wants to put your dance in the game
The free-to-play Fortnite: Battle Royale has become a cultural sensation with a wide-ranging playerbase. How do we know? Because professional sports players won't stop mimicking the game's weird dances in real life. Maybe one day they'll be doing one of your dances -- because Epic Games just launched a contest for players to submit video of their smooth moves, with the best one making it into Fortnite.
Microsoft gives up on Groove Music, switches customers to Spotify
Microsoft still isn't having much luck competing in the digital music realm. The software behemoth has announced that it's axing its Groove Music services (streaming, purchases and re-downloads) after December 31st, 2017. And unlike in the past, there isn't another Microsoft-branded service waiting in the wings. Instead, the company is transitioning everyone over to Spotify. The Groove Music app will offer to migrate your collection and playlists through an update, starting with a preview version this week and more broadly on October 9th.
Listen to Groove Music while you play 'Forza' on Xbox One
One of the cooler features from the Anniversary Update for Xbox One is Background Music. As the name implies, you can use music from practically any source as your soundtrack for a lot of different activities on the console. If you're a fan of Groove Music, there's an update rolling out that adds the service to the list of Background Music sources. It's a feature that's been available to folks in the Dashboard Preview Program for awhile, but Xbox's Mike Ybarra says that the update, version 3.6.2395, will be available for everyone today.
Microsoft gives Groove for iOS and Android a facelift
Microsoft's Groove apps for iOS and Android weren't quite as good as the Windows version, but this update was designed to change that. The company has given its music apps for both platforms a facelift that makes them look more like their Windows counterpart. It also bundled a handful of new features with it. The apps now have an Explore view listing the most popular songs, and they now take on a higher resolution when scaled up on big phones. Microsoft also promises faster downloads for offline playbacks and various improvements.
Microsoft Groove builds smart music playlists around your tastes
Smart music discovery playlists are all the rage right now (just ask Spotify), and Microsoft knows it. It recently introduced a Your Groove feature to Groove Music that automatically creates playlists suited to your taste. It'll generate track listings for your existing OneDrive music collection based on your listening habits, moods and artist activity, so you can revisit a favorite band when it's on tour. However, the real party starts when you have a Music Pass -- Groove will throw new songs into the playlists to expand your horizons.
George Harrison's solo catalog is available at most streaming services
If you enjoy listening to solo work from members of The Beatles, the library of options just got larger. The solo catalog of guitarist George Harrison hit most music streaming services today. This means that you'll be able to access the musician's tracks on the likes of Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, Rdio, Spotify, Tidal and others, including albums like Living in the Material World. If you aren't familiar with Harrison's solo music, now's a good time to get acquainted. The newly-posted albums join those of former bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on streaming services, but the music of the group as a whole remains off limits there. To make things easy for you, we've embedded All Things Must Pass on the other side of the break. [Image credit: AP Photo/Brich]
Windows 10 preview turns Xbox Music into 'Groove'
Welcome to the new music experience in Windows 10. As hinted at earlier this morning by Paul Thurrott, the company just announced it's rebranding the Xbox Music experience to "Groove", while also renaming the Xbox Video app to just "Movies & TV." According to a blog post about the changes, the new naming is meant to be "more identifiable to our broad customer base" and will roll out to other devices in the coming months. The timing of the change is odd as Windows and Xbox begin to work more closely together than ever before, but it doesn't appear that the actual features will be much different. Of course, with the launch of Apple Music, rebranding could be just the way to get some attention for an existing service that already offers a lot of the same features.
Apogee Groove improves headphone audio, for a price
It's been awhile since I've spent much time with Apogee's audio gear. In my early Engadget days, I reviewed both the Jam and MiC, two portable recording accessories that turned the iPad into a tracking center for guitars, vocals and podcasts. Earlier this year, the company revealed the Groove, putting years of pro audio experience to work improving subpar headphone audio. The diminutive metal device sits comfortably between your go-to headphones and laptop, providing a massive sound boost despite being about as small as a pack of gum. So, what's the catch? Well, if you're familiar with Apogee, you know its gear isn't cheap. Does the Groove provide enough oomph to warrant its $300 price tag? That depends on your listening habits.
Apogee's USB headphone amp is an audio boost in a tiny package
If you're looking to improve the sound coming from your laptop while working on the go, Apogee may have the fix. At this week's NAMM trade show, the company announced Groove: a small USB digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and amp that aims to boost quality without taking up a considerable amount of extra room. In fact, the unit appears to be about the size of a thumb drive. Groove works with both Mac and PC, tackling up to 24 bit/192kHz audio for both headphones and powered speakers with on-board controls for muting and volume adjustments. The add-on is USB powered, so there's no need to worry about batteries or changing, and the aluminum frame houses Quad Sum DAC tech that uses four converters per channel to keep tracks crisp and clear. There's no word on pricing just yet, but the accessory is set to arrive this spring, and when it does, we'll be taking it for a test drive.
